Trump
should have been familiar with the process.R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe asked him not use “It’s the End of the
World as We Know It,” which was played at an anti-Iran-deal rally attended by
Trump and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Mellencamp

Trump
is hardly the first candidate to run into such problems.Musicians are typically more liberal minded
than Republican conservative politicians.As a result, Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen objected to Ronald Reagan
using “Born in the USA” in the 1984 campaign. In 2008, Sen. John McCain used
tunes by John “Cougar” Mellencamp, inciting an enraged response from the
singer. McCain also ran into trouble that
year with Palin when the song "Barracuda" was used to mark their
entrance.The title referenced Palin’s
high school nickname, but the band Heart, which owns the rights to the song,
strenuously objected.

K'Naan

Somalian-born
rapper K’Naan responded with anger when Mitt Romney used his “Wavin’ Flag” in his
failed 2012 campaign. George W. Bush outraged Tom Petty for playing his “I Won’t
Back Down.” When hit with a legal notice, Bush promptly failed to live up to
the words of the song and chose another tune.

Nevertheless,
every candidate seeks to find the right music to animate voters.That’s been going on since the 1840 campaign
when William Henry Harrison, the military hero of the battle at Tippecanoe,
Ohio ran with John Tyler against incumbent Martin Van Buren and three possible
vice presidential candidates.

The
song was written by Alexander Ross and sung to the music of the folk ditty “Little
Pigs.”It contained the immortal words:

Who
has heard the great commotion, motion, motion
All the country through?

Old Tippecanoe

It is the ball a-rolling on
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too
And with him we'll beat Little Van, Van
Van is a used up man
And with him we'll beat Little Van

The
success of the song, which became extremely popular, caught the attention of
other candidates.As a result, songs
have become a requirement of almost every campaign. So, in 1864, Abraham
Lincoln won re-election with support from the rousing “Battle Cry of Freedom,”
a song that is still current.

New
York Gov. Al Smith picked a well known lilt from the 1890s, “The Sidewalks of New
York,” to underline his failed 1928 try for the presidency against Herbert
Hoover.That song remains familiar
today, too.

Broadway musical

Perhaps
the best know campaign song is “Happy Days Are Here Again,” which was Franklin
Roosevelt’s theme song in his success 1932 run for the White House.It wasn’t the first choice – “Anchors Aweigh”
was -- but at a campaign stop, a previous speaker was so boring, Roosevelt’s advisers
asked for something livelier.Someone selected “Happy
Days” from the 1930 musical Chasing Rainbows.

The
song has almost become a Democratic Party trademark in the intervening years.

Another
popular song, the Beatles’ “Come Together,” was actually written by John Lennon to support Dr.
Tom Leary’s quixotic attempt to become governor of California in 1969.When Leary, a former Yale professor well
known as an advocate for the use of LSD,
lost the race, Lennon added some nonsense lyrics and released the song to better
success than Leary enjoyed.

Guthrie

In
the 1992 campaign, challenger Bill Clinton went with Fleetwood Mac’s "Don't
Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)" while incumbent George H.W. Bush started
with "Don't Worry, Be Happy,” a successful 1988 a cappella hit by Bobby
McFarren, and then shifted to Woody Guthrie’s anthem "This Land is Your
Land." Ironically, given Bush’s conservative roots, Guthrie wrote the song
to protest the rosy view of this country expressed in Irving Berlin's
"America the Beautiful.”

Today,
music remains intricately entwined with the candidates, who often borrow sings without checking with the musicians first.However, as president, no candidate has to worry
about a theme song.That role is already
taken by “Hail to the Chief,” which was written in around 1812 and first used
to introduce a president in 1829.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history with occasional forays into American history.He holds an ABD in American Studies from Case
Western Reserve University. He also speaks at various religious organizations
throughout Florida.You can reach him at
www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His most recent book is Passover in Prison, which
details abuse of Jewish inmates in American prisons. His latest novel, Ice
Flow, describes how one woman destroys a Massachusetts town in
1876.His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle,
bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.